Helsinki is not just a place - it’s a state of mind January 22, 2020 Helsinki is not just a place - it’s a state of mind I’d like you to imagine a scene for me. It is a scene from the distant past (the 1980s) and it involves a family at dinner. Children are sat across from their parents at the dining table and a geni... Boys vs Girls September 10, 2019 Boys vs Girls Recently, during a Year Six philosophy session, I asked my class to arrange themselves into a circle - the results left me truly startled. Chairs and tables were scraped back to the sides of the ro... Exploring Online Safely March 27, 2019 Exploring Online Safely My roles as a Year 5 teacher and leader of STEM, as well as being the parent of two children, ages 8 and 12, has led me to think quite a lot about E-Safety. Digital media provides opportunities for... Compare The Market for Schools December 19, 2018 Compare The Market for Schools Last week, the DfE Compare School Performance site was updated, and the summary page for Coleridge Primary School describes some aspects of our performance as Average. I do not wish to downplay the... Why I Love Teaching In The Early Years November 12, 2018 Why I Love Teaching In The Early Years I’ve been asked on numerous occasions why I love teaching in the Early Years; what makes it special? I’m not sure people expect, or want, a lengthy response or a detailed anecdote about rearr... Farewell Year 6 July 20, 2018 Farewell Year 6 Over the last couple of weeks, members of the governing body and myself have been evaluating where we are as a school and where we want to try and go in the next 5 years. As part of this evaluation we... Focus On Emotional Wellbeing June 27, 2018 Focus On Emotional Wellbeing Way back in the last millennium when I trained to be a teacher, it was all about teaching children the three Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic. Examining The Qualities That Matter May 18, 2018 Examining The Qualities That Matter For the past few months, our children in Year 6 have been preparing for SATs. These end of year assessments test children’s abilities in arithmetic, mathematical reasoning, spelling, reading comprehen... Emotional Intelligence And Fantastic Mr Fox December 6, 2017 Emotional Intelligence And Fantastic Mr Fox On a recent tour, showing prospective parents around the school, I was asked what I felt Coleridge’s greatest strength was. I answered, that while we have high expectations for our children academical... What, How And Why? September 12, 2017 What, How And Why? Working in education is one of the most rewarding jobs you could wish for, especially when you see the positive impact that your work is having on children and families. However, juggling all... Developing Teachers, and Teaching June 9, 2017 Developing Teachers, and Teaching Today we held internal interviews for a new middle leadership role. These positions don’t come up very often; when they do I am always impressed with the number of applicants and the aspirations of ou... An Open Letter To Theresa May March 8, 2017 An Open Letter To Theresa May Dear Prime Minister, I woke this morning to the news that you have decided to invest £320 million in the creation of another 140 new free schools – this on top of the 500 you have already pledged t... Campaign For Fair Funding January 19, 2017 Campaign For Fair Funding On Tuesday 17th January, I attended a meeting at Rhodes Avenue Primary school. The meeting was organised by a group of local parents who have joined together to campaign against the cuts that are faci... Social Media November 16, 2016 Social Media The run up to the American election and the subsequent victory for Donald Trump have left many people feeling astonished and dumb founded - myself included. Democracy and freedom of speech are importa... The Funding Challenge October 7, 2016 The Funding Challenge It is no secret that many state schools - ourselves included - are in financial difficulty. Shrinking budgets and rising costs threaten to impact upon what schools are able to offer their students. Co... The EU and Community July 4, 2016 The EU and Community It has been an unforgettable couple of weeks, and regardless of your political views you cannot escape hearing about, reading or participating in a discussion on the EU Referendum. It has been stagger... Standardised Testing vs. Creative Thinking June 10, 2016 Standardised Testing vs. Creative Thinking Over the last term, Year 6 and Year 2 have been sitting their SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests), and I could not have been prouder of the way in which they approached them. The children were calm and ... Driving Change May 9, 2016 Driving Change Before taking the job as head teacher, I remember talking to my predecessor, Mrs Boffey, about the importance of ‘staying ahead of the game’. However, in the current political climate this is becoming... A return to fitness March 15, 2016 A return to fitness Thank you to you all who have welcomed me back to school and shown concern for my health over the last couple of months. Having something go wrong with your body, unexpectedly, is something that ca... Home Learning December 7, 2015 Home Learning ‘Home learning’ or ‘homework’ is an issue that is difficult for a school to come up with a definitive solution which satisfies all parents’ point of view. This sentiment was reflected in the recent su... Welcome to our new website! November 4, 2015 Welcome to our new website! It doesn’t seem that long ago when, as a newly qualified teacher, the blackboard was the central feature of my classroom. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t come home from school with chalk on my clothe... Black History Month October 6, 2015 Black History Month This weekend, I was reading an article written by Benjamin Zephaniah. In it, he argued that, despite feelings that society has progressed towards greater racial equality, in actual fact, we have not c... Sad News September 9, 2015 Sad News It saddens me to start my first blog of the new academic year with some devastating news I received over the summer. The day after we said goodbye to Bill our Network manager we learned about a tragic... The end of a fantastic year! July 15, 2015 The end of a fantastic year! The end of term always comes around quickly and this term has been no different. For the school it has been a busy but exceptional year and the school has gone from strength to strength. One of the... Transitional Times June 5, 2015 Transitional Times During the holiday, I watched the state opening of Parliament. Though I have always been interested in the colour, tradition and ceremony of the event, on this occasion I paid more careful attention, ... The Ofsted Inspection April 14, 2015 The Ofsted Inspection The notion of an ‘outsider’ coming into your school to make a judgement about the ethos and learning is a daunting experience. One can only hope that whoever the inspectors are and whatever background... Time to Reflect March 10, 2015 Time to Reflect At times when learning something new, we will all have faced great challenges. While learning can be fun, if it is something that needs that extra focus and needs to be practised over and over before ... The Things That Matter January 27, 2015 The Things That Matter A problem with the role of Headteacher is that it is all too easy to lose sight of the things that really matter in a school. One can get bogged down in all the paper work, meetings and emails that ne... Making a Difference December 19, 2014 Making a Difference I stumbled across a story on the internet yesterday which struck a chord with me, and which I thought I would share. An old man was walking on the beach one morning after a storm. In the distance, ...
